“They’ve relied on it too much, haven’t they? This area is oil and gas.”

Walking down the High Street, it is evident that the town is struggling to survive. The handful of pubs and hotels are quiet and room occupancy is way down. Restaurants and shops are feeling the pinch.

At the Crazy Horse coffee shop, proprietor Malcolm Harrison said: “The numbers that normally come in from down at the port is down since very little is happening there.

“That’s affected the number of workers coming in for breakfasts. And there’s the knock-on effect from a lot of the people that bought second houses to let out to service workers at the port that are empty now. They’re feeling the pinch because they’ve got a second mortgage to pay and no income.”

Looking out at the mothballed rigs, Malcolm, who employs five locals, said: “It’s eerie. You have all of this hardware parked up and you’d think it would mean there’s at least something coming through to the town but it doesn’t.

“It will be a dip and it will definitely come back but it’s going to take a while and you just don’t know what’s going to happen with the oil price.”

Hairdresser Debbie Murdoch has run Boomerang Hair Studio in the High Street for 17 years.

(Image: Richard Frew/Daily Record)

The married mum-of-three has two sons in the oil industry. She said: “They’re riggers and so far they’re still in jobs.”

When times were good and work at the port was booming, Debbie ­diversified to make extra money from the ­opportunity on her doorstep.

She developed a sideline as an agent for bed-and-breakfasts, matching them with workers seeking digs, and once had a contract with ­engineering specialist Rigmar to find accommodation for their workers.

Now she’s concentrating on keeping her core ­business going.

She said: “My customers would normally have to book an appointment two weeks in advance but just now they can walk in off the street.

“People will come in for a haircut rather than a cut-and-colour yet we haven’t put our prices up in ages.”

Custom from the port has all but dried up. Debbie said: “People who don’t ­understand see the all rigs out there in the Firth and think times must be good but it’s just a giant car park for ­redundant rigs.